Thursday, May 23, 2024 –President William Ruto today Thursday May 23 spent part of his time at the Whitehouse Washington D.C. fielding questions from journalists.
Citizen Tv’s news anchor Ayub Abdikadir Mohamed, who also had a chance to ask President Ruto both governance and leadership questions, sought answers as to why the Kenya Kwanza government was so preoccupied with Haiti Mission when, at home in the North Rift, insecurity was yet to be dealt with conclusively.
“Mr. President, this is a follow up question as well. In your courtesy speech in Atlanta, you said Kenya is committed to humanitarianism.
“Now explain your geopolitical goal, when 12000 kilometers away from Nairobi, schools in North Rift are closed down and this your own Defense CS also talked about protecting families in banditry areas.
“Mr. President why should this be happening when insecurity was one of your major manifesto pillars?” Ayub posed.
In response, the Kenyan president, standing side-by-side with Joe Biden, defended sending the police to Haiti despite banditry still in parts of Kenya.
“Thank you very much, I made up a commitment to the people of Kenya to sort out insecurity in the North Rift. I have followed up that with action. So far, 3,000 military officers and 2000 police officers are in that part of the country,” Dr. Ruto told Citizen’s Abdikadir.
The commander-in-chief while addressing the concern alongside his United States counterpart Joe Biden, noted that the security enhancement in the North Rift is an ongoing exercise that will only rest after normalcy resumes.
“We have renovated first fifteen schools and reopened 20 schools which were closed in the wake of banditry and the exercise is ongoing. We have actually made a tremendous progress,” further stated President William Ruto.
Dr. Ruto said taking the police to Haiti had not stopped him from deploying similar police forces at home to curb insecurity and lawlessness.
“Even us in our own country, we have been deploying police officers in our own country as well as in the DRC Congo; and 5000 troops are currently in Somalia and, therefore, Haiti should not be an exception,” President Ruto explained.
The commander-in-chief said, the Haiti mission that will see a total of 1000 police officers dispatched, speaks volume to the commitment his government has made on peace-keeping around the world.